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Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Sometime back I had read a news about a man (is he ??) and since then it’s been bugging me like a scab on my knee. Many ‘remarkable’ happenings infuriate me all the time. How many times more will I write about these crap things around me, which were never on my mind when I had initially thought of starting this blog.

Ok, now the news. Sixty-four-year old Ziona is married to 50 wives, is a father of over 129 children (Has he not created a world record yet ?) and known to his people as the head of the ‘largest joint family on earth’ with over 180 members at a village in Mizoram. Yes !! That fanatic is from India !!

Ziona is responsible for carrying forward the family tradition (legacy of spiritual, social life, love and co-operation) with all his family members, his latest wife being a 26-year old, married last year and is a mother of six-month-old baby (Has she not heard of John Wayne Bobbitt ?).

I was appalled at this fanatic’s audacity when he mentioned ‘To expand my sect, I don’t mind even going to America to marry a woman’. Beware America !!He got married to at least 10 women during 2006 alone. Despite his busy schedule (Oh yeah, I can understand it very well), he is also said to be a very hard working person.

Whatttttttt ???????????

Hard working ?? Hard working at what ? Fathering a village full of children ? B*****D !!! Sorry this is the first time I am using such word but then what do I call him ?? Normally I am quite a quiet chilled person but right now I am hot grilled, my blood boiling, teeth gritting and if someone sees me while I am typing this post, he’s definitely going to get a shock to see a totally different person.

Heyy, someone please go and tell V|agra people not to waste millions on R&D/manufacturing/ marketing, they have a readymade source for everything.

The family has their own school, piggery and poultry farm, paddy fields and a vegetable garden big enough to feed the entire family.‘We have not received any help from the government’, he said. You fanatic moron! How can you even imagine the govt. to help you in your adventures ?

Guinness officials’ bid, to put Ziona into the books for getting married to the maximum number of women went in vain because the cult leader refused to pose for a photograph. (Good for him, otherwise I would have definitely killed him GRRRRRR..). Don’t laugh, I am serious.

However, the purpose of this post was NOT to highlight or praise that maniac’s achievements but a different issue altogether that lies somewhere else.

When we say Muslims, Sikhs or Christians are minorities in our country, we are very wrong. I won’t call them minorities. They are very much like us, a part of us.. only a little less in number... just like fingers of a hand..some long, some short but each one of them has a different and important role to play. We can’t label any one to be inferior to the other. We can’t separate them from us. It hurts. It pains.

Then what are we fighting for ? These caste system, backward/forward, Dalits, Brahmins, reservations, renaming of cities, burning trains over statues.. where are we heading for ? Why are we wasting our precious time, energy, resources, intellectuals and peace over these petty issues ?

The real issue is somewhere else. The real issue is in that village of Mizoram, the real issue is in tribes of Bihar (Santhal), the naxalites of AP and the tribes of Andaman & Nicobar. My concern is about these minorities.

To me these are the minorities who are obscured somewhere in their own secluded world of age old traditions, blind faiths and not able to see the outside world let alone competing with it. In reality, I am not angry with Ziona. I sympathize with him.

It is not their fault but somewhere we, the people and the government have neglected them, omitted them from our list of priorities. I don’t say we should divert our whole 100% attention to them but yes, they should also be included in our ‘to do’ list.Most of our effort of primary & health education, vaccinations, upliftment, basic facilities and all blahs blahs should be targeted towards these minorities.

Instead of burning trains if we could educate people of Rajasthan on child marriage and sati system, our job is done.Instead of indulging in inter-caste violence if we could spread the knowledge on AIDS, sex education, family planning to those isolated people, our job is done.Instead of making issues of caste based reservations if we could provide basic schools, computers, books to people in remote villages, our job is done.Debating and renaming the cities / roads will not solve our problems, taking the roads to remote places where these minorities are leading miserable lives will.

Instead of political parties pointing fingers at each other, if we could point fingers to cancerous corrupt system, our job is done.

Living in cities we are quite capable of taking care of ourselves if the government and the corrupt system leave us alone to grow in a healthy and free environment.

I see you have posted the translation. Thanks for the appreciation :-D But what have you done to the hindi version - all I can see there are a lot of question marks "??????? ???? ??" Used hindi fonts (difficult to view them on unix mahines :-( )

And lastly, I mailed you the Ghazal I was talking of. With the lyrics :-)

very nice post...about minorities - i think it is not people from different religions that belong to the minority, it is the people who do something against the atrocities that are in the minority... that is my p.o.v

First thing.. that guy and his achievement .. dont be judgemental .. he lives in society where it is accpeted and if all his wives are ok with it why shall we question .Minority .. hmm we link our self to certain identity to give ourself some assurance of existence .. minoritism is also a part of it ,, although it is mixed with shitty politics

so what are u upto now days ... hope u remember me .. the guy from ITC :)

now take a deep breadth before you see this.. I can see your mischievous smile. Saw that link. Saw a few more there. Hmm... Don’t try to provoke me now. Do you want me to write a post on that ? I guess so.

Lazy,Absolutely brilliant post!.. Thank you.

Liked your definition of 'Minorities'. So very true!! .. Thanks once again. :)

Well.... first of all didnt Osama Bin Laden's father have as many children with almost as many wives? I could be wrong abt the stat.. especially since this guy made it to the guiness book of records.I think its interesting to note what is making these women marry that man, is it poverty? lack of knowing better.. that is where we should educate. But you are dead on about the need to assist these tribes be it in Chhatisgarh, Assam orissa or anywhere.Because while part of us are leaping forward into the new century, these guys are stuck a couple of centuries behind. They are the real issue

Hazel Dream,if all his wives are ok with it why shall we question.. Well, I have a different view here.

hope u remember me .. Of course I know you as a fellow blogger.

Arzoon,people needs to be educated...is the govt sleeping??.. I think the govt never looked in that direction.

Aditi,I don’t have any such ideas about Osama’s family. its interesting to note what is making these women marry that man.. Yes, that’s what I was also wondering abt. Glad that you could understand my view point.

Well, I beg to differ here.. the minorities you have mentioned are indeed in need, identified and taken care of but I dont think the another section which u have said are a part of us are NOt minorities... before going as far as mizoram or andaman, just see the conditions of Muslims who are fighting illiteracy, unemployment, poverty and the most of it all - stares - most often of hatred and doubt.. Dont they need something better from us.. and our seeing every muslim like he is a terrorist is proving more harmful and obstructive in their progress... I not at all say that mizoram's and asam's and andaman's should be forgotten .. they are a part of india as well... but aren't the poor farmers who are taking extreme steps of taking their own (and many times their families') lives need more attention...

ok. i consider you will also agree to this.. but then what.. And I am sure we can build a better world, a better India. How??Instead of making issues of caste based reservations if we could provide basic schools, computers, books Who is the We here??? are you doing Anything for it?? ok.. u r busy.. are you doing indirectly.. I dont mean literally You here.. by "you" i mean everyone who comes here and reads this and comment here..including me!!! We need much more than a few LOLzzz here.. dont we!!And I dont agree with everyone that You need to calm down... I think you should boil more and more.. till the point it comes out.. In fact, its high time we all start boiling, then only the last line of your blog will come true....

SiD,Glad to have your views here. I knew someone would say that. I fully agree and respect your views and not denying anything. You have mentioned about Muslims, but why only muslims, for that matter Christians/sikhs are also at mercy of others. Here in this post, I didn’t want to bring in any major factor such as religion or anything else.You are slightly off track from my viewpoint in the sense that I am talking about those who are not aware of anything outside their world (not even the existence) - ANY of their rights (not that we in cities are fully aware of), absolutely cut-off (sometimes a mental block) or isolated cases. They live their lives in their own style.

The minorities you have talked about are ‘somewhat’ aware of the existence of their rights, the govt, the constitution/facilities/ etc etc etc and they know they can approach these in case of need (It is another matter how much help do they get). Also, we (you, me, people of India and the govt) know about existence of these minorities. Again, how much help they are getting out of all this mutual ‘awareness’ is definitely a point of discussion but not here. I fully agree with you they need better attention.

Who is the We here??? are you doing Anything for it??.. Hope, now you know who is ‘we’ here. If you ask me as an individual, ,, yes, I am doing my bit in a very small way but would not wish to make it public.

its high time we all start boiling, then only the last line of your blog will come true.... Oh Oh I can see a cool SiD boiling there.. Well said. Now, transform this heat into some action. :)

@cuckoo: well. I didn't mean to give a religious touch to it..just was trying to add some more content to what you said....anyways... its great that you are doing something..and I would say again.. by 'you' i meant to mean everybody.. and infact you should tell everyone about what you are doing... it will be a source of motivation i feel

Ziona needs visectomy SERIOUSLY:)You have a heart of gold :) people usually don't think about all this what u mentioned...I truely beleive if we get rid of the differences I'm sure our efforts won't go in vain & we can make this world a better place.

Hey, I found your post very interesting albeit judgemental. But of course if you can't be judgemental in your own blog, where else will you be? :) Because as Indians, being judgemental is our birthright.I think you make some good points, but I'd like to counter by saying that this person is behaving in the self interest of his community, just like most of us do. Sure, he's getting a lot of action in doing so, but at least he is not killing poor labourors from other states, cutting the throats of people in the name of religion and converting people into his sect/religion by showing them a few silver coins. You mentioned Santhals - they are one of the poorest people in India and what do Christian missionaries do with them? They give them monetary support and education in lieu of converting to Christianity. The government runs a reservation process that will not fix our issues but only turn the tables so that very soon folks from "higher" castes will have no jobs. And then 50 years later, some other government will reverse this process again so that the "poor" classes of then get some benefit.In my opinion, if we have to remain a secular and a diverse nation then we should respect the motivations of others in spite of the fact that those may be totally different from our own values. As long as this person is not doing anything illegal, he has the right to self-preservation as everyone else.Remember Changez(Genghis) Khan? 16million men are carrying his genes right now.

MBA,Glad to have your views here and thanks for liking the post. Oh I think my reply to your comment is going to be the longest one. :)) Maybe some time later I’ll write a post on this 'interesting' subject. ;)

but at least he is not killing poor labourors from other states, cutting the throats of people in the name of religion and converting people into his sect/religion by showing them a few silver coins… Well, since you are regular on my blog I assume you know that I am against such actions. About Santhals ?? - I agree with you but this is a diverse topic for discussions... certainly not here. Had it been a forum, I would have loved to discuss it again & again. Not only Santhals, there are many other communities which are slowly getting converted in the name of support (financial, moral, educational).Again this conversion has two sides.. and both sides speak for & against it. People like you & me are against but ask anyone from missionaries.. they’ll be for it. Similarly, at the receiving end there is one group who is for this conversion blaming govt not doing anything and another group revolting it.

As long as this person is not doing anything illegal, he has the right to self-preservation as everyone else... Hmmm.. democratic country. :) Liked your viewpoint. Yes, you, me or any third person will try to do what he’s doing but definitely not in the same manner. The upliftment & basic awareness I was talking about, was for this part. Once again, this is a huge area of discussions from disadvantages to other related issues. Lots of whys and why nots. Moreover, he’s NOT doing anything illegal is questionable.

The government runs a reservation process that will not fix our issues but only turn the tables so that very soon folks from "higher" castes will have no jobs… I beg to opine that’s the most idiotic process, if it is so. I don’t agree to this theory. One of the jobs the govt has is, to maintain peace among people. Everybody knows this issue is raising many conflicts and hatred among general public. I am totally against ANY reservations on the basis of religion / caste / gender etc. (I can be judgemental here, right ? My blog... ha ha..)

Let the govt provide equal opportunities (how much of it happens in reality is a million dollar question) to ALL .. including people in the remotest place of the country. Let them grow in a free healthy environment and then choose the best.

Anyways, let us get back to the topic of my post... Whom we consider as minorities and what kind of support they should get first.

Interesting post. :) I see you got a lot of responses. My take is this - The problem is not going to get solved by identifying minorities and giving them things. Rather we should stop looking at majorities and minorities and focus on changing attitudes.People need to learn to demand results from their representatives. These so-called minorities would not even be backward if their representatives had kept their promises. How is it that they keep getting elected in spite of not delivering? Because people do not participate in the election process. Because people refuse to stand up and ask questions. The typical attitude is Poochne se kya hoga? kuch nahin badalne wala. Well, change will not happen by itself. We, the people of India, have to make the effort towards change.

Simple words - if we....we are the strength and we are weakness....!Most of the time its "I" which never comes to actualization of "WE".The day I start taking care or atleast do something about "we" as in all ....I am sure some of the issues will be tackled.

ps - its off topic...however I would actually like u to see that youtube link again...its not bad....see it with cool head...may be you will get it what I mean....there is nothing to get your temper shoot - you know titles are decptive....!!

CHANGE. That’s the word. Yes, we, the people of India, have to make it evident. Have you ever seen three-legged race ? The race is won only when both the partners run in a synchronized manner. We can not leave one part behind and try to win over the world. Of course, not all are equal so we have to find a way to get the optimum result.

People need to learn to demand results from their representatives… Well, for that people need to be aware first wherever they are. The main thing is ‘awareness’… awareness from both sides, for all the things. Half the time we don’t even know what all we can ask for and other half times we expect others to do it (too lazy to do ourselves). And from govt’s side ? At times they are not ‘aware’ of such problems. Ha Ha..

BTR,we are the strength and we are weakness.... Spot on !!

I would actually like u to see that youtube link again... Which youtube link are you talking about ? The one KT gave me ? I have seen it more than once. I laugh at such thoughts. I don’t think any religion teaches us to do that.

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This blog belongs to ME and it has my takes and views as I see the world. You are free not to agree with me. I heartily welcome and value your opinions on the posts. While I may not be able to reply to all comments, I do look forward to reading them and intend to grow with them. Offensive or off topic comments will be deleted.